Certification, lease rates rise | Gov’t says it must play catchup after holding the line on changes
Saskatchewan farmers will pay more this year to certify irrigation land, rent crown cultivated land and graze cattle in provincial pastures.
Increases to these fees were announced last week and will bring in an additional $6.3 million in the upcoming fiscal year.
The provincial budget March 20 will set out government spending.
The fee to certify land for irrigation will rise in two stages this year and next. The cost will increase from $1,300 to $1,650 for initial parcels and from $1,100 to $1,550 for additional parcels, said agriculture minister Lyle Stewart.
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In 2014-15 the fee will be $2,000 to certify any parcel for irrigation.
“Before land can be certified for irrigation, fairly extensive soil testing has to be done, and the soil tests have to be analyzed looking for excessive salts and other minerals that would make irrigation not a healthy thing for the land,” Stewart said. “This is just to cover the ministry’s costs.”
This increase is the first to these fees since 1997.
The increased lease rate for cultivated crown land is the second in a three-year increase under a new formula. The old formula used a wheat, barley, summerfallow rotation and year-old price data. The new formula uses current price projections and includes most commodities typically grown in the province.
It will cost an additional $13.79 per acre, on average, to rent this land in 2013, for a total of $33.13.
“There’s lots of land renting for $80 to $100 plus per acre so I think this is still quite a bargain,” he said.
But he also said there shouldn’t be an advantage for one farmer who has a crown lease over another who rents privately and the lease rates have to be brought a little more in line.
The province administers about 317,000 acres of cultivated lease.
The third rate increase, to community pasture grazing rates, applies only in the 52 pastures operated under the Saskatchewan Pasture Program.
The cost this season is rising 14 cents per cow per day, and $10 per calf per season. Since most producers talk cost in terms of cow-calf pairs, Stewart said this is the equivalent of an increase from 79 cents to $1 per day for a pair.
The SPP offers supervision, facilities and animal management and the minister called the increase substantial but reasonable.
The province avoided significant increases post-BSE and during the period of low prices until 2011 and now has to catch up a bit, Stewart said.
“Revenue will be put back into operation and maintenance,” he said. “Still, this will just cover costs.”
